What Counts as Exercise?

Here's an interesting question: You've signed up for a wellness program or fitness challenge at work. You are ready to get started but not sure where to begin. How to get into a basic exercise routine without spending a lot of money joining a gym or buying lots of workout equipment. How to get it down without committing hours in the gym every week and without giving your life over to reading stacks of workout books and magazines?

1. Analyze your starting point. Get a physical exam from your doctor. (I cannot stress how important this is for anyone who wants to begin a fitness journey.) Sighing this baseline is super-important. Sign up for a free two-week pass at the local gym or YMCA. Find out your body statistics (weight, BMI, body fat percentage). Let them do it for you! Establish your and consider what numbers are most important to you.

2. Set goals based on what you perceive as most important and attainable. Why worry about something that doesn't feel like an accomplishment? If you haven't truly "worked out" in a few years, setting a goal of running a marathon in the next six months is not attainable, and at the beginning, will not be as important as building the fitness base necessary for long-distance running. Sorry, Biggest Loser fans, we all can't work out 8 hours a day and run a marathon in a reality-show season.

3. Consider this fitness base. The number = 10,000 = steps per day as a basic, I-am-not-a-couch-potato level. A good pedometer can be had for about $10, so get one, along with a new pair of shoes! Establish this base and get a routine going with this level. It does take work if you're not already up and about often. (We did this at work through a wellness program. I thought I was doing just fine until I saw the vast gulf between the number of steps I thought I walked everyday and how many steps the pedometer showed. 10,000 steps = 3-5 miles.) Remember: this is what you should be doing every single day, without fail, to simply be upright and actively mobile.

Increase your pace:

• Park farther away from the store entrance
• Take the long way around the office or walking out and about
• Get up and walk around as much as possible at work
• Take a 5-minute walk before and after lunch
• March in place during commercials
  

4. Add on some aerobic exercise. What is considered aerobic exercise? First, it needs to be something that brings your heart rate into the aerobic zone (which is about a 6.5 - 8 on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being couch potato and 10 being run-for-your-life). Second, that elevated heart rate should be sustained over a period of time - longer times at 6.5 and shorter at 8 - until you've worked up to 10 minutes, 3 times each day. See what I did there? That meets the 30 minutes per day standard recommended for aerobic fitness.

Try these functional aerobic exercises:

• Duck unders: Squat deep (no knees over toes) and crouch like you're going under something - step wide, then back - you can build up a head of steam doing this!
  
• Walking lunges
• Walking up stairs (let go of that banister!)
• Brisk walking or biking
  
• Lo-jacks - low impact version of jumping jacks
• Kickboxing - surprisingly low-impact. Bust out those Billy Blanks Tae Bo tapes!
  
• Play with your kids outside, run with/after them, play catch, ride bikes, swim
  

Remember, whatever you're doing for aerobic exercise does not count toward that 10,000 steps per day, so you're working alongside that goal as well - which will up your overall calorie burn and fitness level.

5. Take two days a week to build muscle. This can be done in as little as 20 minutes, using a $10 resistance band and your own body weight. Squats, lunges, biceps curls, triceps extensions, overhead presses, planks and push ups - that's all you really need to start out. Building muscle helps burn fat faster and keeps you burning calories longer.

6. Get plenty of sleep. Moving more means your body has to adapt and recover. Be kind to it by going to bed 30 minutes earlier than normal until the earlier bedtime is the new normal. Then, do it again. Your body, your appetite and your metabolism will thank you.